Review of Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) by Moviematt — 09 Feb 2014

To quote another user (axgrinder), whose review is so good it needs to be repeated, in full: "The critics love Inside Llewyn Davis. A few even proclaim that Joel and Ethan Coen are the greatest filmmakers in America. But look past all those 100 pt. scores and notice the choice of words they use to describe this film. Words like small, painful, heavy, melancholy, bleak, deeply felt and exquisitely crafted. Few, if any, of them describe this movie as clever, interesting or entertaining. That’s because it isn’t.

Here’s more of what this movie isn’t. It isn’t funny. The night I saw this movie, the theater was sold out. No one laughed, not even once. Also, the songs aren’t that great. Unlike O’ Brother, Where Art Thou?, you’re not going to be singing any of these songs to yourself as you walk out the door, and you’re not likely to hear them on the radio, or anywhere else, ever again. (Sorry T-Bone.) Worst of all, the story isn’t very interesting or entertaining. It’s about a folk singer struggling to make it as a musician. He takes himself very seriously, and he thinks he’s better than everyone else. He makes a lot of bad decisions and pretty much alienates everyone around him. It turns out he’s not that good a song writer, and he gets beat up for being a jerk. Then the movie ends. (No one applauded. Everyone was too busy scratching their head and saying “Huh?”) No Country for Old Men was something of a head scratcher too, but at least it was interesting. My first reaction to this firm was, “Huh?” followed by “Wow, that was totally pointless.” (If you’ve seen Fruitvale Station then you know what I’m talking about.